The nation’s top hydropower trade group and energy developers are raising the alarm on the burdensome regulatory process facing new and existing projects, warning a reliable source of electricity for millions is at risk.
Hydropower — which supplies nearly 80,000 megawatts of the nation’s power, or 6.2% of total U.S. utility-scale electricity and 28.7% of total utility scale renewable electricity, according to federal data — remains a key part of the nation’s growing power grid, but stakeholders argue it faces regulatory hurdles far greater than those facing other carbon-free sources of electricity.
“Our concern is that, without greater clarity on the licensing process, both how long it’s going to take for the process and how much it’s going to cost for the process, a lot of asset owners are simply going to decide to surrender their license,” National Hydropower Association (NHA) President and CEO Malcolm Woolf told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“What that means for the grid is a whole lot more instability just as we’re adding variable wind and solar to the grid,” he continued.
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“Now is when these companies are making the decisions about whether to relicense or not because they know that it’s typically a seven- or eight-year process, but very often over a decade-long process,” Woolf said. “For example, if there are concerns about the effect of a facility on a particular fish, you may need to do studies during multiple spawning seasons. All of those studies need to be complete before you submit your application that’s due five and a half years in advance.”
“So these decisions are being made now, and an industry survey from last year showed that over a third of hydropower facility owners were actively considering decommissioning, considering license surrender,” he added. “So, this is an issue that needs to be addressed now. It can’t wait to future Congresses.”
“It’s no coincidence that areas of the United States that have some of the cheapest electricity are areas with a lot of hydropower that’s existing.”
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Rye Development is among the leading hydro developers in the U.S. and has proposed nearly two dozen projects, mainly in the mid-Atlantic region and the South.
While hydropower generated nearly 100% of renewable power nationwide for decades, it has recently been surpassed by wind power, and solar power has grown more than 420% over the last decade.
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Peggy Beltrone, the public policy adviser at Idaho-based Cat Creek Energy, another clean energy developer, touted the benefits of pumped storage hydropower and criticized the permitting process. Cat Creek is developing a pumped storage project in southern Idaho which it says will have a capacity of 720 megawatts, but isn’t projected to come online until 2028.
And the White House outlined its permitting priorities in a fact sheet this month that included streamlining hydropower. White House Clean Energy Czar John Podesta remarked that fixing the cost and delays “bogging down the licensing process for hydropower projects” was necessary to keep the energy source online.
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In addition, on May 10, Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., introduced bipartisan legislation to expedite hydro licensing, a bill the lawmakers hope will be attached to any final energy permitting package. The NHA, Podesta and a number of other stakeholders endorsed the legislation.
